If you operate a parking lot, you’ve probably been encountering more and more electric cars. After a few drivers have asked you whether or not they can park & charge, and you’ve answered no, you probably started to rethink your business plan.
Adding EV charging stations to your parking lot can be a great revenue multiplier. It will help you reach a growing population of EV drivers, and will also help increase your sales. Even if you haven’t noticed too many EVs yet and don’t think that you need to install charging stations, just you wait. EV sales grow every year, and were two and a half times higher in 2022 than in 2018.
To get a head start and to make sure you’re ahead of the curve, you’ll want to hop on the bandwagon and install EV charging stations in your parking lot. But where? Keep reading to learn where the optimal location or your EV charging stations could be.
Access to Electricity
Firstly, you want to make sure you install your EV charging stations in a location where they’ll have easy access to electricity. Extending data lines can be very costly, which is why many people prefer to install their devices in clusters near a power distribution panel. Depending on the size of your parking lot, you may want to create more than one cluster of EV charging stations. An effective way of maximizing the number of drivers served is to use a commercial Level 2 EV charging station that can charge two vehicles simultaneously.
VIP Experience
Placing EV charging stations closer to building entrances is preferable in order to enhance the customer experience. For example, you can designate EV charging spots next to disabled parking spaces. Remember, you’ll be generating more revenue from EV drivers than from non-EV drivers, so giving them VIP treatment could help your case. You’ll also want to discourage non-EV drivers from parking in these spots, so they should be in sight of security cameras, which generally also monitor entrances.
Prominent Visibility
In order to attract EV drivers entering the parking lot to the charging stations, it is essential you provide ample visibility to the EV parking spots and chargers. This can be done through vertical signage, road-surface icons and asphalt painting. Green is a color universally associated with sustainability, so you may want to utilize it to promote your green initiative.
Choosing the Right Charging Station
Depending on the kind of parking lot you run, you’ll want to take certain things into consideration. For example, if you run an outdoor parking lot, you’ll want to make sure that your EV charging stations are weather-proof. If you run an indoor, underground parking lot, you’ll want to make sure that your EV charging stations are compact and can easily fit into a parking space. You’ll also want to make sure that payments can be administered in any environment, and that drivers can also pay if the device goes offline. To learn more about the idea payment system for EV charging stations, click here.
If you’re ready to install EV charging stations in your parking lot, contact us today. To learn more about how to start and manage an EV charging business, read our short guide here.
